15 October 2012

PLOT AGAINST HITLER

(Atomic fantasy in 2 acts)

All characters are invented.Any similarity with historical events is purely incidental.

Eduard Roth

1

.

2

ACT I: THE WAR YEARS

Main characters

WERNER HEISENBERG: German physicistNIELS BOHR: Danish physicistALBRECHT SPEER: German minister for armamentKURT DIEBNER: Phycisist in charge of the nazi atomic programHENDRIK CASIMIR: Dutch physicist

ROBERT OPPENHEIMER: Physicist in charge of american atomic programROBERT SERBER: collaborator of OppenheimerHANS BETHE: collaborator of OppenheimerGENERAL GROVES: general in charge of american atomic programMERKADA: Argentinian physicist working in the nazi atomic programHORST KORSCHING: collaborator of Heisenberg

GENERAL BECK: German general in charge of the plot against HitlerCOUNT STAUFFENBERG: German colonel in charge of killing HitlerGENERAL VON KLUGE: Commander of german armies in FranceGENERAL VON STUPNAGEL: collaborator of the formerCOLONEL VON HOFACKER: collaborator of the former

PAUL SCHERRER: Swiss physicistCIA AGENT: member of the american secret servicesGREGOR WENTZEL: German physicist

3

Scene 1 - Copenhaguen - 15 september 1941, morning - Seminarroom of Niels Bohr Institute (full of hidden microphones) -

Present: Heisenberg and audience.

Heisenberg: Alone in Copenhaguen and far from dark zipped eyes, I weep inmy outcast state and curse my fate. I wish I could be like you, with friendspossess’d and from dark earth I sing this hymn at heaven:

If west would join anzipAnd Russia could defeat

Anzip would plot against nazipForces of the west unite

And with anzip collaborate

Audience: Heisenberg, you dont know what you are saying ! You are totallycrazy ! You are the victim of the nazi madness !Heisenberg: I am anzip.Audience: Nazi ! Traitor !

Note: nazip=nazi, anzip=antinazi, zip=svastica. Heisenberg wants to re-move Hitler from power and make an alliance between a democratic Germanyand western countries against Russia.

Scene 2 - Copenhaguen - 15 september 1941, afternoon - Close toBohr’s house - Present: Heisenberg and Bohr.

Heisenberg: Niels, look at this plot. We are designing at Dahlem a uraniumreactor with heavy water.Bohr: Werner, I dont want to know anything about it.Heisenberg: Just take a look.Bohr: Werner, you already destroyed France, Holland, the Balkans. Now youwant to destroy Russia ! And what then, the whole world ?Heisenberg: You should take a look and deliver the plot to your foreignfriends.

4

Bohr: Werner, you are mad ! mad !

Note: Heisenberg wants to contact the Allies and make a deal: he will only de-velop a uranium reactor but the Allies must not attack Germany with atomicbombs, in case they succeed to fabricate them. Niels Bohr rejects the projectof Heisenberg because the deal implies an alliance against Russia, and Bohris very left-wing oriented. The invasion of Russia started in june 1941. TheAmericans will enter the war in december 1941.

Scene 3 - Berlin, Reich Chancellery, Wilhelmst. - February 1942 -Present: Speer, Heisenberg and Diebner.

Heisenberg: There are two uranium isotopes, 238 and 235. The first is abso-lutely dominant nowadays but it used not to be so in the past. The secondis nowadays scarce. However, if a critical mass of 235 is achieved, it canproduce an enormous explosion and destroy a large town.Speer: How much 235 is required ?Heisenberg: Only a very small and well determined quantity.Speer: So we go ahead. Which name for the project ?Heisenberg: Uranverein.

Note: Heisenberg wants money to construct a reactor (he calls it an ’engine’),but tries to sell it to the minister of armement as a bomb to get the money.

Scene 4 - Eindhoven, Philips Laboratories - October 1943 -Present: Heisenberg and Casimir.

Heisenberg: It has always been the historic mission of Germany to defend theWest and its culture against the hordes of the Eastern. Neither France nor

5

England have been sufficiently strong to play a leading role in such a defenseand so, perhaps a Europe under german leadership might be the lesser evil.Casimir: I cant believe what you said, Werner. Can you repeat it in German?Heisenberg: Da ware vielleicht doch ein Europa unter deutscher Fuhrung das

kleinere Ubel.Casimir: Did you make a pact with the Devil, Werner ?Heisenberg: No need Henk, Ich bin das kleinere Ubel.

Note: There are several famous ambiguous statements by Heisenberg that canbe misinterpreted and suggest that he is a nazi. But it is obvious that he is nota nazi as can be demonstrated later. The origin of these misunderstandingis that Heisenberg is very anticommunist and does not want to see Germanyinvaded by the Russians.

Scene 5 - Oppenheimer’s office at Los Alamos - unspecified day inDecember 1943 (morning) - Present: Oppenheimer (Opie), Serber

(Roby) and Bethe (Ansi).

Roby: Hello Opie, What are the news ?Opie: Look at this drawing (see figure 1). It slipped out of Niel’s pocketyesterday.Roby: It looks like a bottle of cognac.Opie: Cant be. Look at the letter z. It must be anis, it was called ouzo inancient greek.Roby: What about a bottle of porto ?Opie: Not possible. The shape is certainly a novel late vintage, like those inmy bar, but there is no z in the translation to any hindustanic, semitic orarabic language.Roby: What about xerez ? there is a z and it looks spanish.Opie: Very good guess, but you know very well that Spain is occupied by thefascists and Niels would never drink xerez under these circumstances.Ansi: Guys, this is a heavy water reactor. I just did my calculation on the

6

back of an envelop. It will never produce enough fast neutrons to yield anuclear explosion.

D O2

z

Z

Figure 1: Bohr’s plot.

Scene 6 - Oppenheimer’s office at Los Alamos - same day asbefore (afternoon) - Present: Oppenheimer, Groves.

Groves: Doctor, can you explain to me the meaning of this plot ?Oppenheimer: General, this is a false fission reactor.Groves: How should we call it ?Oppenheimer: Call it falsos, that means groves in ancient greek.Groves: That sounds good, ‘Falsos Mission’.Oppenheimer: Yes, but never say I passed you this name.Groves: Doctor, you are a genius. I swear I will never put in doubt yourloyalty.

7

Note: The Americans understand that Heisenberg is only trying to constructa reactor and not a bomb, but they want to be sure by sending a spy to inspectthe german atomic sites.

Scene 7 - Berlin, Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, Dahlem - January1944 - Present: Heisenberg, Merkada (Mercader), Korsching

Heisenberg: So you come from Argentina.Merkada: Yes, from University of La Plata.Heisenberg: A funny name for an Argentinian.Merkada: In reality I come from Palo Alto (Stanford).Heisenberg: And you work with professor Rolenz (Lawrence)?Merkada: Yes, on separation of U-235 with a spectrometer.Heisenberg: What a coincidence, we have a spectrometer too.Merkada: May have a look at it ?Heisenberg: Sure, make a tour with my talented young colleague Host Ko-rsching. But dont forget to pay him 500 000 pesetas and give to him a goodposition at La Plata at the end of the war.Merkada: Thanks a lot. I will inform about your hospitality the argentinianambassador in Madrid. (possibly this was the nickname of Colonel Hohen-thal, The american spy chief in Spain)

Note: The University of La Plata had no interest in atomic physics at thetime. The presence of an argentinian physicist coming from La Plata Uni-versity to inspect the german atomic sites is certified by the Farm Hall tran-scripts. Most probably he is a spy sent by the Americans to confirm thatHeisenberg is not trying to build a bomb.

8

Scene 8 - Meeting of the Bavarianvereingemainesanzip (BVGA) -- Unspecified day in 1943 (but it was a wednesday) - Present:

Heisenberg, Beck, Stauffenberg

Beck: So today we are talking again about chimpanski ?Heisenberg: Naturlich, Herr General !Beck: Did you succeed to complete your calculations ?Heisenberg: The energy in the sun is very complicated to calculate, Herr Gen-eral ! That needs to be renormalized. There are infinities of higher orders.What are the news from Erwin Rommel?Beck: He will join us as agreed.

Note: General Beck was in charge of a plan to kill Hitler (nicknamed ’chim-panski’). The conspirators used to meet every two weeks on wednesday.Heisenberg used to attend these meetings and was therefore informed aboutthe plans to kill Hitler. This demonstrates without any doubt that Heisenbergwas an antinazi. Erwin Rommel was also involved in this plot as commentedlater.

Scene 9 - Meeting of the BVGA - Heisenberg’s house in Berlin -19 july 1944 - Present: Heisenberg, Beck, Stauffenberg.

Beck: Werner, what’s your talk about ?Heisenberg: The production of energy in the stars.Beck: And the tittle ?Heisenberg: What are the stars.Beck: In German, please.Heisenberg: Was sindt die Sterne.Beck: Say it again, please.Heisenberg: iter ws Steren.Beck: Again, please.Heisenberg: Hitler muss sterben (Hitler must die).

9

Beck: OK, now you can go ahead.

(Heisenberg gives his talk)

Beck: When do you leave for Haigerloch ?Heisenberg: Tomorrow morning, good luck.

(Heisenberg leaves for the Swiss border with telegrams from Scherrer in hispocket. His family is waiting for him.)

note: next day, On July the 20th 1944, Stauffenberg tried unsuccessfully tokill Hitler by placing a bomb in the meeting room of his headquarters inEastern Prussia. On july the 17th, Rommel was severily injuried by a planeattack in the front of Normandy. Rommel was supposed to transfer to Berlinby air troops from Normandy to take control the city. Rommel was replacedby general von Kluge who tried unsuccessfully to negociate with Eisenhower.

Scene 10 - Headquarters of the Supreme Field Commader West,in La Roche-Guyon, close to Paris - 20 july 1944 - Present:General in Chief of Army Group B Von Kluge, general Von

Stulpnagel, colonel Von Hofacker.

Stupnagel: I have already arrested all SS-units in Paris.Hofacker: You should mobilize your army against the nazis and contact im-mediately the Allies to negociate a cease-fire.Kluge: I can only do that wenn das Schwein tot ware.(If the pig is dead).Hofacker: Can you repeat that again ?Kluge: Wenn weisnchre sitot.Hofacker: Once more ?Kluge: Wenn Eisenhower stimmt (If Eisenhower agrees).Hofacker: OK, I understand now.Stupnagel: What are the news from Berlin ?Kluge: Confusing. Keitel says Hitler is alive and Beck that he is dead.

10

Scene 11 - Video-conference between Berlin and Zurich. - Early1944 - Present: Heisenberg, Scherrer.

Scherrer: Hello Werner, how is life in Berlin ?Heisenberg: Hello Paul, just a bit noisy at night and smoky during the day.Scherrer: If you knew, Werner, how peaceful life is is Switzerland ! By theway, did you receive my telegrams inviting you to come to Zurich ?Heisenberg: Yes Paul, its very kind. May I know the reason for these invita-tions ?Scherrer: We are really interested in your S-Matrix theory. I am sure thefuture of physics will depend on it.Heisenberg: I am very pleased to learn that, but you know I am essentialhere in Berlin for the plot of a new generator. Maybe I can escape next july.

Note: Paul Scherrer was a renowned physicist working at Zurich. He wasboth a good friend of Heisenberg and close to the american secret services inSwitzerland. He was therefore the ideal contact between the Americans andHeisenberg.

Scene 12 - ETH, Zurich, Seminar room - 18 December 1944(morning) - Present: Heisenberg, audience (mixture of nazi and

CIA agents).

Heisenberg: (After drawing some plots on the blackboard, see figure 2) Now isthe winter of our discontent made glorious summer by my S-matrix invention.

When after so many criesI see the black zip evaporateAnd in front of so many spiesInfo is lost in outcast stateI hoped that my own artNazip, nazip could defeat

While I fulfill my partForcing my reactor to sleep

11

But brute force did prevailAnd I reached the fate

That all my plots did failThey closed the only gate

Wars only destruction bringAtomic power is the king

S−MatrixS−Matrix

a

zip

nS−Matrixz

ip

na

a

nsch

l

a

g

s

m

o

k

e

Figure 2: Heisenberg’s plot (Anschlag=attempt to kill Hitler).

12

Scene 13 - Streets of Zurich - 18 December 1944 (afternoon) -Present: Heisenberg, CIA agent.

Heisenberg: Heischen.Agent: Berg.Heisenberg: Why no response to my messages ?Agent: Churchill said yes, Roosevelt said no.Heisenberg: Why sabotage of the heavy water ?Agent: Because of Roosevelt.Heisenberg: Bombings on Germany ?Agent: Only conventional.Heisenberg: Fuhrer ?

Agent: Grosse Ubel.Heisenberg: Fuhrung ?

Agent: Kleine Ubel.Heisenberg: Uran-Verein ?Agent: Safety guaranteed by Churchill and colonel Hohenthal.Heisenberg: Berk.Agent Eley.

Note: Sherrer organized a contact between Heisenberg and the american spyMorris Berg from OSS (Office of Strategic Sevices). Morris Berg attendedthe morning lecture by Heisenberg with a gun in his pocket. It’s a pure legendthat he intended to kill Heisenberg during the lecture.

Scene 14 - Scherrer’s house in Zurich - 18 December 1944 (night)- Present: Heisenberg, Scherrer, Wentzel.

Heisenberg: I dont want to talk about politics. Just science, please.Scherrer: Yes, this was our agreement.Wentzel: But Werner, you should admit now that you have lost the war.Heisenberg: It would have been so beautiful If we had won !

13

Wentzel: I cant believe what you said, Werner, can you repeat that in Ger-man?Heisenberg: Es ware so schon gewesen wenn wir gewonnen hatten.Wentzel: Again ?Heisenberg: DIE NAZIS haben den Krieg verloren. Es ware so schon gewe-sen wenn WIR gewonnen hatten. (The NAZIS lost the war, it would havebeen so beautiful if we had won, UNDER THE COMMAND OF GENERALBECK)

Note: Here again we have an ambiguous statement by Heisenberg that makeshim look as a convinced nazi. The misunderstanding comes because he is veryanticommunist and cannot accept that Germany is invaded by the Russians.

Scene 15 - Oppenheimer’s office at Los Alamos - June 1945 -Present: Oppenheimer, Groves.

Oppenheimer: Where are they, general ?Goves: In Dwight’s bin.Oppenheimer: Why such an ugly name for a beautiful house ?Goves: You have a better place, doctor ?Oppenheimer: Farm Hall.Goves: So False-Heisenberg-Operation ?Oppenheimer: Call it epsilon operation.Goves: I know you are a red, doctor. But I swear I will never betray you.

Note: At the end of the war, Heisenberg and seven other german physicistsworking in the german atomic program were detained in Farm Hall for sixmonths. Otto Hahn and Max von Laue were added to complete the list often. The presence of these last two physicists is absurd: they were antinazisand had no relation with the german atomic program (just Hahn a little bit).

End of Act I

14

ACT II: THE FARM HALL TRANSCRIPTS

Main characters (Farm Hall detainees from july 3, 1945 until january 3, 1946)

WERNER HEISENBERG: German physicist, Nobel LaureateKURT DIEBNER: In charge of german atomic programPAUL HARTECK: Worked on german atomic programWALTER GERLACH: Replaced Diebner in 1944ERICH BAGGE: Collaborator of HeisenbergHORST KORSCHING: Collaborator of HeisenbergKARL WIRTZ: Collaborator of HeisenbergCARL FRIEDRICH VON WEIZSACKER: Collaborator of HeisenbergMAX VON LAUE: German physicist, Nobel LaureateOTTO HAHN: German chemist, Nobel Laureate at the end of 1945

All action takes place in Farm Hall, a bugged house in Godmanchester, Eng-land, near Cambridge.

Note: When in 1981 the historian of science Gerald Holton asked to see, forscholarly reasons, the Farm Hall transcripts, he received a reply from theForeign Office saying: ‘It is, as you probably know, the general policy of theBritish Government, to release documents to the public 30 years after theirdate of origin. But there are exceptions, we do not release documents whichcontain information about individuals which could cause distress or embar-rassment to themselves or immediate descendents. I am afraid there can beno doubt that the Farm Hall transcripts fall into this category.’ On december20, 1991, the Royal Society asked Lord Mackay to release the transcripts,which were finally released.

15

Scene 1 - 6 july 1945 - Present: Heisenberg and Diebner.

Diebner: I wonder whether there are microphones.Heisenberg: Oh no, they’re not as cute as that. They are not as the Gestapo.They are a little bit old fashioned.Diebner: What are they going to do with us ?Heisenberg: Of course it is possible they will agree to ask us whether we wantto stay in England or go to America, but we cannot stay in Germany.Diebner: Why ?Heisenberg: They cannot take any risk that we fall in russian hands.

Scene 2 - 18 july 1945 - Present: Heisenberg, Witz and Harteck.

Heisenberg: If our colleagues who know something about the business -Goudsmit for instance- were clever, they would put another article in thenewspaper about antinazis. It could start with Winston Churchill and colonelHochenthal.Wirtz: Goldsmit doesn’t want to help us, he lost his parents.Harteck: Goudsmit cannot forget we killed his parents.Heisenberg: One day in 1943, I received a letter from Coster saying thatGoudsmit’s parents were in great danger. I wrote a letter to Coster sayingthat ‘I would be very sorry if they experienced any difficulty in Holland’, butI admit, it was too late.Harteck: What happened then ?Heisenberg: When the letter arrived, they had already been deported. Wirhaben nicht seine Eltern umgebracht, aber Hilfe angebracht haben.Harteck: Do you know of similar cases?Heisenberg: One day Scherrer wrote to me a letter saying that the mathe-matician Shouder leaving in the polish town of so-and-so was in great danger,under the false name of so-and-so. Of course the letter was opened by theGestapo at the border and I never heard of Shouder any more.Wirtz: We murdered all Jews in Poland.Heisenberg: What could we do about it ?

16

Scene 3 - 21 july 1945 - Present: Bagge, Diebner, Korsching

Korsching: Well Diebner, we’ll go to Argentina. I know Merkada. He cameto KWI and to Haigerloch and made detailed inspections of our installations.He came from La Plata. Nowadays you can also work in a uranium machineof your own at La Plata.(Merkada, or Mercader, the supposed argentinianphysicist who inspected the german atomic sites, was possibly an americanagent coming from Berkeley University and not from La Plata, an argentinianuniversity without any interest in atomic physics).Bagge: We should approach the argentinian ambassador.Korsching: But not in England, you will only succeed with the argentinianambassador in Madrid (colonel Hohenthal, the american spy chief in Madrid).If I go to La Plata, I will tell them: ‘I am a scientist, and I want to build alaboratory myself. It will cost 500 000 pesetas. Otherwise I can always workon cosmic rays.’Bagge: Actually, you derived no benefit from your patent either.Korsching: Because I did not tell them it was a patent. It’s still now inZehlendorf (Berlin) but hidden so the Russians can’t find it. But if they letme go to La Plata and pay the 500 000 pesetas they promised, I will let themknow the place where it’s hidden.

Note: The british agents added the following comment on the transcripts:‘Korsching is a complete enigma’. Enigma is the name of a machine used bythe British Intelligence during WW II to decode german secret messages.

Scene 4 - 21 july 1945 (continuation) - Present: Bagge, Diebner,Korsching

Bagge: I am sure the Anglo-Americans have used their last 3 months to im-itate our experiment.Korsching: They probably used their uranium blocks to see if our engine wasrunning or not.Bagge: What about future research in Germany ?

17

Korsching: They dont want to destroy Germany but England wants to weakenher, otherwise they will never achieve hegemony in Europe.Bagge: They seem to plan a United States of Europe.Korsching: If Russia does not interfere. If the Russians put a spy in my room,I will make an experiment without this fellow noticing it. I will just work onsaturday nights.Bagge: There is also the question of what the Commander wants.Korsching: He told us ‘I assure on my word of honor’, but nothing written,‘that (sentence erased in the transcripts)’.

Scene 5 - 4 august 1945 - Present: Heisenberg, Hahn

Hahn: Did you get any information from the american atomic program ?Heisenberg: I had a special man who sent me amazing information fromSwitzerland. Of course, I burned all the correspondence and I have forgottenhis name.Hahn: I understand you dont want his name to be known by the Americans.Heisenberg: At that time I knew exactly what was being discussed in theScherrer Institute regarding uranium. Apparently he was often there whenScherrer lectured and knew what they were talking about. Nothing veryexciting, but for instance, he once reported that the Americans had justbuilt a new heavy water plant and that sort of things.

Note: The source information of Heisenberg was Scherrer himself.

Scene 6 - 4 august 1945 (continuation) - Present: Heisenberg,Hahn

Heisenberg: On the other hand, for the whole water business, I did everythingI could not to produce an explosion.

18

Hahn: Can you develop that further ?Heisenberg: Well, I was absolutely convinced of the possibility to make ourengine, but I never thought we would make the bomb and at the bottom ofmy heart I was really glad that it was to be an engine and not a bomb. Imust admit that.Hahn: And what did the Americans ?Heisenberg: About a year ago, the Außenministerium warned me that theAmericans had threatened to drop a uranium bomb over Dresde if we didn’tsurrender. This was contrary to our agreements with the Americans, and Ireplied that it was not possible.Hahn: And what happened ?Heisenberg: Between 13th and 15th february 1945, some 1300 heavy bombersfrom RAF and USAF dropped more than 3900 tons of high explosives andincendiary bombs on Dresde, causing at least some 50 000 casualties.Hahn: What was the reason for this bombing ?Heisenberg: There was no strategical reason for it. They just said: we agreedwith you not to drop any atomic bombs on Germany, but this is not atomic,just conventional.

Note: The effect of the Dresde bombing was equivalent to the effect of a ura-nium or plutonium bomb. Probably the americans wanted to compare theeffect of a conventional bombing to the effect of a nuclear bombing.

19

Scene 7 - 6 august 1945 (day of Hiroshima attack) - Present:Heisenberg, Hahn, Gerlach

Gerlach: We will be looked upon as the ones who have sabotaged everything.We won’t remain alive long there. You can be certain that there are manypeople in Germany who say that it is our fault. Please, leave me alone.Hahn: I am thankful that we were not the first to drop a uranium bomb.Heisenberg: Look Walter, we sabotaged many more things than you canimagine. But nobody will ever know about it.Gerlach: They were our enemies, although we sabotaged the war. There aresome things that one knows and one can discuss together, but one cannotdiscuss in the presence of Englishmen.Hahn: I must honestly say that I would have sabotaged the war if I had beenin a position to do so.Heisenberg: Dont tell this to Walter, he is close to suicide.

Scene 8 - 8 august 1945

Statement:As the press reports during the last few days contain partly incorrect state-ments regarding the alleged work carried out in Germany on the atomicbomb, we would like to set out briefly the development of the work on theuranium problem.1) The fission of uranium was discovered by Hahn and Strassmann at KWI-Berlin in december 1938.2) In 1941, work started to produce a uranium engine, not a bomb, usingheavy water.3) Heavy water was produced at the Norsk Hydra plant in Rjukan (Norway)but production was stopped in 1943 due to aircraft bombing.4) At Freiburg an Celle, experiments were made to avoid use of heavy waterby using U-235.5) The engine at KWI-Berlin and Haigerloch was about to work successfullyat the end of the war.

20

Signed: O.Hahn, W.Gerlach, P.Harteck, K.Witz, H.Korsching, M. von Laue,W.Heisenberg, C.F. von Weizsacker, E.Bagge, K.Diebner.

Scene 9 - 11 august 1945 - Present: Hahn, Gerlach, Bagge

Hahn: In Germany they could prepare a few grams of ionium per year.Gerlach: No, we prepared 60 kg of pure ionium.Hahn: That’s impossible. Where, in Germany ?Gerlach: No, in Belgium. It’s part of some espionage affair. An indian secretagent came to me and asked help to know where the ionium came from. Itwas at the end of 1944. Can one make a bomb of pure ionium ?Hahn: I dont know.

Note: Ionium is possibly a code name for the propellant or the explosive of V1and V2 rockets used by the Germans to attack London from Belgium sincejune 1944. The British Intelligence Services wanted to know how the theGermans were able to fabricate large quantities of such material. They askedhelp to Uranverein members, according to Gerlach.

Scene 10 - 14 august 1945 (Lecture by Heisenberg) - Present:Heisenberg, Bagge, Diebner, Gerlach, Hahn, Harteck, Korsching,

von Laue, von Weizsacker, Wirtz

Heisenberg: When we consider an explosion due to chain reaction of fastneutrons inside a fissible material like U-235, we need the cross-section,σt = 4 × 10−24 cm2, where the fraction of fission is 40% and the fraction ofscattering is 60%. The mean free path for neutrons for fission is lf = 1/(nσf ),where n is the density of atoms, and the mean free time τf = 1/(nσfv), wherev is the neutron speed. In a fission process, the typical kinetic energy of neu-trons is 1 MeV, corresponding to v = 1.4 × 109 cm/s. The density of U-235

21

is n = ρ NA/Mu = 19 NA/235 where NA is the Avogadro number. We obtainin this way lt = 5.1 cm, lf = 13.7 cm and τ = 10−8 s. Assume now that theneutron distribution is a continuum function N(r, t). This function will obeythe diffusion equation, also called Frick’s equation

∂N

∂t− D∇

2N =ν − 1

τN

for r < R and N = 0 for r > R, where R is the radius of the bomb. Thediffusion coefficient is D = ltv/3, and the right hand side of the equationis the neutron flux created inside the bomb by the chain reaction. Thecoefficient ν is the average number of neutrons created in a fission reaction,and must be larger than 1 in order to produce a chain reaction. The value ofν for fissible materials like U-235 or Pu-239 is about 2.2. We have a solutionfor the equation of the type

N(r, t) = N0(r)eν′t/τ

and by substitution in the equation with the boundary condition N0 = 0 forR > 0 we find

N0(r) =sin(πr/R)

rwith ν ′ = (ν − 1)(1 − R2

c/R2)

where Rc is called ‘critical radius’ and obeys R2

c = π2Dτ/(ν − 1). If R > Rc

the neutron yield increases exponentially inside the core of the bomb andthe explosion occurs. There is no explosion otherwise. Now I will calculatethe critical mass. For U-235 and using the values above, Rc = 13.8 cm, soMc = 4/3 πR3

cρ = 200 kg of U-235. Note however that the interaction lengthof neutrons is comparable with the critical radius, so the approximation isnot very accurate. The correct critical mass, once all effects are taken intoaccount, is of the order of 50 kg. If one considers a tamper around the bomb(neutron reflector) then Mc ≈ 15 kg for U-235 and Mc ≈ 5 kg for Pu-239.

Note: The calculations we have written before are not actually those by Heisen-berg, but those extracted from the book ’LOS ALAMOS PRIMER’.

22

Scene 11 - 7 september 1945 - Present: Heisenberg, Blackett, Laue

Heisenberg: Everything concerning the bomb should be made public.Blackett: I think the arguments in favor of that are very strong.Heisenberg: When are we going to be liberated ?Blackett: My own views are that the majority of you are going to be liberatedvery soon. And there is the possibility for some of you to work in Englandor America.Laue: Some of our younger colleagues have the wish to go for one or twoyears to America or England. Is that possible ?Blackett: Who ?Laue: Bagge for example.Heisenberg: Weizsacker is very interested in astrophysics.Blackett: Is he extremely good ?Heisenberg: Yes, but he wants to stay in Germany.Blackett: What about Korsching ?Heisenberg: He is a very good experimentalist and had a nice idea on theseparation of isotopes.Blackett: Wirtz ?Heisenberg: He is also very good.Blackett: Is there any political problem about him ?Heisenberg: No, he was politically always on the good side, on our side, thesame as Korsching. Only Diebner and Bagge were members of the nazi party.By the way, Patrick, can you investigate where is the corpse of my talentedcolleague Hans Euler ?Blackett: Where did he die ?Heisenberg: In a plane accident over the Azov Sea.Blackett: Sure Werner, I will exploit my russian connections.

Note: Patrick Blackett was a future Nobel Laureate and a leading experimentalphysicist in postwar England. He was left-wing oriented and an importantconsultant for the new Labour Cabinet. He was in addition a good friend ofHeisenberg.

23

Scene 12 - 12 november 1945 - Present: Harteck, Hahn, Laue

Hahn: The Daily Telegraph has announced that I have been awarded theNobel Prize for chemistry. I think the info is reliable.Laue: You got it to put pressure on our liberation.Hahn: If they allow me to go to Sweeden, the world will know how we aretreated here. It’s a shame on England and America to treat us like that.Harteck: They wont let you go, unless you promise not to say where and withwhom you are.

Scene 13 - 1 january 1946 - Present: Heisenberg, von Weizsacker

Weizsacker: Werner, tell us was really happened !Heisenberg: (Plot of the plot against hitler appears on a screen, see figure 3)

A reactor painted with zipsWas the object of my passionTrue plots are not equipped

Unless added by fashionBut when the plot’s not falseMy very attention is gazed.

Fast, fast neutron yield increasesTill turning point arises

Perfect were you first createdTil your plane fire spittedAnd me by thee defeated

My action can’t be admittedBut your’s made for destruction

So let’s all hide our action

Note: On january 3, 1946, 6 months exactly after arriving to Farm Hall,the 10 german scientists were flown to Lubeck in the british zone of accupiedGermany.

24

P

S

M

Z

B H

h

h

h

z H=Grosse Ubel

h= Kleine Ubel

z=zorro

z

s

Figure 3: Plot of the plot against Hitler

B=Berlin, M=Munich, S=Stuttgart, P=Paris, Z=ZurichH=Hitler, h=Heisenberg, z=zorro=Rommel, s=Stauffenberg

General Beck was in charge of assassinating Hitler and replacing his gov-ernment in Berlin by an anti-nazi government with Rommel as minister ofdefence. This government would negotiate a peace accord with the britishand the americans, but not with the russians. Churchill was in favor of thisplan, but not Roosevelt. The attempt to assassinate Hitler occurred on July20th, 1944, while Hitler was in his headquarters in East Prussia, but it failed.However, the plan included to send by air german troops from the Normandyfront to Berlin, in order to take control of the city. The commander of thesetroops was to be Erwin Rommel. Unfortunately, Rommel was severely in-juried by a spitfire attack, just 3 days before the attempt to kill Hitler, and

25

the plan to send german troops to Berlin from Normandy failed. The attemptto kill Rommel was probably a mistake because the allies believed that Rom-mel was against the plot. We know with total certainty that Rommel was infavour of the plot, since he was forced to commit suicide once the plot failed.

Heisenberg was in contact with the americans via Paul Scherrer, a renownedphysics professor at Zurich. Scherrer was both a good friend of Heisenbergand close to american secret services. Most likely, Heisenberg agreed with theamericans, via Scherrer, that no atomic bomb would be used against a ger-man town, and in exchange the German would not develop any atomic bomb,but just a reactor. Merkada (Mercader) was possibly an american agent sentto Berlin to inspect the german atomic sites, with the consent of Heisenbergand his close collaborators.

It is clear that the americans knew everything about the german atomicprogram, and therefore the detention of Heisenberg and another 9 germanphysicists at Farm Hall was nonsense, unless the americans wanted to knowmore about the plot against Hitler on july 20th, 1944. They expected thatHeisenberg would tell the whole story to Otto Hahn or Max von Laue, whowere anti-nazis and had no or little relation with the german atomic program.Heisenberg decided to say nothing (except maybe in encrypted form), becausehe did not want to be considered a traitor in post-war Germany.

Scene 14 - 1 february 1946

Telegram from Gottingen to La PlataHAVE DESIGNED MACHINE TO KILL NAZIS .STOP. CAN TEST ITON SATURDAY NIGHTS .STOP. COST ONLY 500000 PESETAS .STOP.KORSCHING .STOP.

Telegram from La Plata to GottingenNOT INTERESTED .STOP. WE ARE NAZIS OURSELVES .STOP. MOD-IFY TO KILL REDS .STOP. TELLER .STOP. ALVAREZ .STOP. LAWRENCE.STOP.

end of the play

26